MOBILE, Alabama – A federal judge Monday ruled that the lawyer for convicted Bayou La Batre Mayor Stan Wright is entitled to emails and other communications involving a drug case investigated by a key prosecution witness.

Also Monday, prosecutors argued in a court filing that U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose should deny the defendant’s bid to throw out his conviction on theft and conspiracy charges related to the city’s purchase of a piece of land he had given to his daughter.

The emails relate to defense attorney’s Arthur Madden’s attempt to reverse Wright’s conviction in half of the case – charges of witness intimidation and witness retaliation. Madden has alleged prosecutorial misconduct based on emails he received from a retired Drug Enforcement Administration supervisor regarding whether then-police Capt. Darryl Wilson was eligible for federally funded overtime in late 2010 and 2011.

Prosecutors had alleged that Wright cost Wilson overtime by yanking him from a federal task force in retaliation for his cooperation with the FBI’s probe into post-Hurricane Katrina spending in Bayou La Batre.

Madden had asked for an order directing the U.S. Attorney’s Office to turn over all communications related to the overtime issue that occurred between September 2010 and September 2011 among Wilson, fellow agents on the task force, DEA officials and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

DuBose wrote in Monday’s order that she had reviewed those documents and determined that Madden should receive them.

While the prosecutorial misconduct allegations have gotten the most attention, Madden also has worked hard to overturn Wright’s conviction in the other half of the case. He argues that DuBose should set aside the guilty verdicts on conspiracy and theft from government programs charges and order Wright acquitted.

Lawyers will make their case to DuBose on Wednesday.

Madden has argued that prosecutors failed to present sufficient evidence to support the convictions. Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Murphy maintained in her court filing that the defense bid amounts to a “rehash of the arguments that this Court has already rejected.”

She suggested that Madden’s arguments ignore compelling evidence of the mayor’s guilt.

“In sum, the defendant received a fair trial and more than sufficient evidence was introduced to support the jury’s reasoned verdicts of guilty,” she wrote.

Murphy recounted that evidence in detail, which prosecutors maintain shows that Wright conspired with grant manager Janey Galbraith to push the City Council to use federal grant money to buy the parcel that he had given to his daughter months earlier.

Murphy pointed out that the purchase was “buried” in the council meeting agenda and that it did not include the $131,000-per-acre price tag or the size of the property. She also argued that Wright must meet a steep burden to overcome guilty verdicts by the jury.

“After weighing the totality of the evidence in this case, and giving the jury its due deference, the Court should leave the jury’s verdict undisturbed and thus deny the defendant’s acquittal motion,” she wrote.